


How to save a life

by Nyxied



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: But why are superheroes so strange?, Darcy can be patient, Friendship, Gen, He just needs some time, Many drabbles make a whole, Non Civil War compliant, Snapshots, Tony can people, Unbeta-ed, unlikely friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-05 16:14:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6712117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyxied/pseuds/Nyxied
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Check to make sure a guy was not dead once, and suddenly he was all up in her business.</p><p>... Or the one in which Darcy realises that there are consequences to becoming a blip on Tony Stark's radar. Not all of it is bad. Just kinda weird.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Darcy is startled out of her nap by an explosion that rocks the floor. She leaps out of her makeshift nest on the couch, clothing rumpled and hair a dishevelled mess before she fully registers what is happening.

“Uh—FRIDAY?”

“There was an incident in Lab One, Miss Lewis. The appropriate personnel have been notified."

Lab One. Tony Stark’s lab.

Despite all the rumours, stern warnings and mandatory seminars, the disasters resulting from the crazed mechanic’s genius had mostly been rather self-contained since Jane relocated most of her work to New York nine months ago. Discounting the Ultron Incident, that is. (One always discounted the Ultron Incident.)

“Is everyone all right?”

“Only yourself and Mr. Stark remain on this floor.” Not strange, considering that it was – Darcy consulted her watch – 4:43AM. “Mr. Stark is unconscious, but breathing.”

“Oh." That did not sound good. Even if FRIDAY did seem unconcerned.

The A.I. did not, however, stop Darcy from leaving Lab Seven to wander out into the corridor. In fact, blue lights lit up at her feet, helpfully guiding her towards the source of destruction.

Glass crunched under her sneakers as she drew nearer, the stench of smoke and chemicals permeating the air to a degree that could not be blocked out by the sweater sleeve pressed ineffectually to her nose.

“Mr. Stark?”

Unsurprisingly, no one answered. Except FRIDAY. Ever helpful FRIDAY. “Your two o’clock, Miss Lewis.”

Sure enough, behind an upturned and smoking table lay a crumpled form, face down and motionless.

“Shit.”

Hurrying forward, Darcy crouched beside the unconscious mechanic. Pinching his neck and calling his name resulted in no miracles, but a careful pat down revealed no broken limbs. Just a lot of blood. Head wound. Right. With a huff, she carefully turned her boss’ employer-in-name onto his back and checked for a pulse. Still alive. Good.

With a hand on his sooty forehead, Darcy tilted his chin up to open up his airways, then rocked back on her heels and stripped off her sweater. Bottom lip caught between her teeth, she applied the soft cotton against the gash on his head with as much pressure as she dared.  

“How long till the appropriate personnel arrive, Fri?”

“Incoming, Miss Lewis.”

The A.I. had barely finished speaking her name when a vent duct crashed to the floor, startling Darcy into falling from her squat and onto her ass. Hard eyes stared her down as the newcomer approached, disturbingly silent despite the mine of shattered glass he was treading through.

A dark-coloured bedhead, lack of a proper expression and a distinctly metal arm clued Darcy in to his identity. She swallowed against a dry throat and scrambled to her feet and away from Stark, abandoning her sweater as glass shards fell from her derrière. Glass knicked at her palms in the process, but she dared not look down to check.

James Buchanan Barnes offered no conversation. The ex-assassin bent and picked Stark up with unsurprising ease before turning and unceremoniously departing through the heady mix of smoke and too-heavy silence.

Darcy let out the breath she had not known she was holding. There would be no more sleep to be had that night.

 

* * *

 

It was a decidedly more conscious Stark that invaded her personal space a couple of days later, peering over her shoulder at the paper she was vetting for Jane. The tiny scientist had been bundled off by a cheerful Thor two hours earlier, by then already too late for Dary to want to make her own trek to her one bedroom in Brownsville.

She was broke. Not stupid.

“Uh, hello?”

“Do you understand what you are reading?” Was his chosen greeting.

“To a sufficient degree.” Only the lack of derision in his tone kept her hackles from rising.

“Foster’s papers always did seem exceptionally well-written for someone with her head stuck in space.”

“Thank you?” Darcy spun around on her chair to face him, effectively forcing the man back to create some added space between them. Pushing her glasses higher up the bridge of her nose, she surveyed the healing cuts on his face and eyeballed the bandaged elbow his was nursing in a sling. “You seem remarkably alive for someone who nearly died on Tuesday.”

He shrugged, a small smirk tugging at his lips as he moved away to wander around Jane’s lab. She considered saying something else, but faced with his back as he bent to study one of Jane’s machines, Darcy opted to return to her work. There was no accounting for a billionaire’s actions, after all, and everything in the lab did technically belong to him. Except Jane’s work. Never Jane’s work. There were contract clauses and licensee obligations and everything.

Darcy did not recall him saying his farewell, but when she next looked up from her screen, Lab Seven had returned to its previously unoccupied state.

Weird guy.

 

* * *

 

Her next payslip contained an extra line:

            _Hazard pay -- $2,000.00/-_

The brunette frowned, but did not protest for obvious reasons. It would do nicely to replace the fridge in her apartment the landlord had refused to fix in the last six months. And the showerhead. And maybe a new mattress from IKEA would not be out of the question.

  

* * *

 

“Do me a favour, Lewis.” Darcy arched both brows at the goateed face taking up space in the doorway of Lab Seven. “Go home.”

“... Why?”

“It’s almost three in the morning and you’re on facebook.”

Darcy glanced at her screen - yup, facebook newsfeed indeed - and back at Tony Stark, clearly not understanding his sudden interest in her choice of activities.

“You do realise this is a laboratory and not your apartment.”

Oh. Darcy considered protesting, but he had her there. Clearly she was using precious Stark Greentech electricity and internet bandwith for her personal use. “I hadn’t noticed,” she said, completely blasé, but stood with a regretful sigh when he arched a challenging brow at her.

Check to make sure a guy was not dead once and suddenly he was all up in her business. Maybe she should have just left him there for Barnes. Wasn’t like she had helped.


	2. Chapter 2

“Miss Lewis has fallen asleep in Lab Seven, Boss.”

Tony hummed his acknowledgement, carefully attaching two wires before removing the magnification goggles and dropping it to the table. He stretched, rotating a stiff shoulder. “It’s like she loves her job so much she can’t bear to leave. Or she’s homeless. Is she homeless, FRIDAY?”

It was a fair question, considering that she spent at least four days of the past week overnight at the lab. And the week before that.

“According to employee records, Miss Lewis owns an apartment in Brooklyn.”

“Huh. Maybe it’s the commute then.”

He passed Dum-E on the way out, accepting a bundle of cloth the robot offered him and rewarding it with a pat on its head. The robot was still dancing in glee when the doors closed behind him.

Lab Seven was brightly lit, and true to FRIDAY’s report, he found one Darcy Lewis with her head on a lab table, breathing deeply in the rhythm of sleep. Thick locks of brown her obscured her face, and Tony rolled his eyes heavenward.

“You did not tell me Dr. Foster was here as well.”

“Sorry, Boss.” She did not sound very sorry to him, but Tony decided to let it go in favour of wandering over to the other scientist. She was out like a light, head pillowed on her arms. He peered over her shoulder to find her arms crossed over a messy stack of data readings. Why they still insisted on using paper for such things, he did not know.

“Is Thor around?”

“Prince Thor departed for his home realm this morning. Captain Rogers was informed. It was not said when he is due to return.”

Tony wrinkled his nose.

“Dim the lights to 20%.”

As the brightness decreased in accordance with his instructions, Tony stepped back towards the younger lab assistant.

He hesitated for a moment, then with a shrug to himself, he draped the over-sized sweater Pepper had ordered for him over her shoulders and left the way he came.

 

* * *

 

 “This isn’t my sweater,” the brunette announced, entering his workshop without so much as a by your leave. There was a bundle of cerulean fabric clutched in one hand, the other fisted at her hip, which she cocked to the side once she came to a stop beside him.

“The colour is a perfect match.” To the one she had used to stem on that fateful Tuesday morning. Tony did not look up from the motherboard he was tinkering with, and therefore missed the way the young woman’s right brow curved upwards with some disagree of disbelief.

“And yet the tag reads ‘100% cashmere’.”

“Well, I would offer yours back, but blood can be so hard to wash out.”

“You would know.”

“So I’ve heard. FRIDAY?”

“Your sweater has been disposed of as biohazard waste, Miss Lewis.”

Darcy sighed, and Tony smirked at his work. Until she dropped the fabric on top of his head.

He froze for a second before straightening with a clatter of his tools and snatching up the sweater from where it had obscured his vision. The shorter brunette was halfway to the door by the time he looked to her with a glare.  

“That’s not really how you say ‘Thank You’, Mr. Stark,” she informed him blithely, walking backwards to the door, somehow knowing to not trip over Dum-E and his fire extinguisher. “But you’re welcome anyways.”

“Rude!” He called after her, but she was already disappearing down the steps towards Lab Seven, in a whirl of brown hair and cheerful laughter.

 

* * *

 

Tony did not really expect a response to the gift-wrapped box containing the sweater he had someone leave at her work station. Or to the ‘Thank You’ bonus he had instructed HR to include in her next paycheck.

Except he did. Kind of. Actually expect it.

“FRIDAY, where is Lewis?”

“Miss Lewis is not within the tower currently.”

“It is still a work day, right?” He glanced down at his watch. Yup. Friday, 2:41PM.

Then again, it was hard to miss the fact that while the other scientists on the floor kept semi-regular schedules, Lab Seven never seemed to realize it was the weekends. FRIDAY insinuated that they were almost worse than him. Almost.

He had not appreciated that.

“Yes, Boss. Miss Lewis was last seen leaving the building on Wednesday night.”

“Foster?”

“Dr. Foster is in Lab Seven. But it appears that both Dr. Foster and Miss Lewis were both not in attendance yesterday.”

“And Thor?”

“Prince Thor is currently at Headquarters.”

“Huh.” Tony glanced at the suit specifications in front of him, and to the holograph next to it. “Increase variable six by 5% and run the simulation again.”

 

* * *

 

 

 “She was mugged on her way home.”

“Come again?”

“She was mugged on her way home,” Barnes dutifully parroted, flexing his bionic fingers and wiggling them at his best friend with a smirk. Steve did not roll his eyes, but it looked like a close call. Tony slammed his maintenance panel shut without finesse. “She’s at Alexandra Hospital. Bullet graze to her shoulder.”

“Why do I not know this?” Tony demanded, a heavy frown creasing his brows as he wiped his greasy fingers off on a damp rag.

“I didn’t think it mattered to you.” There was a hint of a question in the ex-assassin’s voice as he stood, tugging the sleeve of his hoodie down to cover the metal. “Darce only said to tell Foster.”

 “Why do _you_ know this?”

“I was following her. Not that it mattered. She tased one poor sod in the balls and knocked another out. Mean uppercut. Bet she would’ve eventually taken the third guy out, too, gun and all. Apparently she used to box way back when.”

Tony filed the appreciative gleam in Barnes’ eyes away for future reference, but settled a pointed look at the super soldier for now.

“What?” Barnes frowned, crossing his arms defensively as Tony shrugged on his blazer, already downloading Lewis’ patient information onto his phone. He had a speech to give at NYU in an hour.

“You were _following_ her? Pervert.”

“Tony,” Steve sighed. “She lives in Brownsville. It’s not a good place to be getting home to in the middle of the night. Bucky was just worried.”

 “ _Brownsville?_ ”

 Barnes glanced at their team captain, expression visibly shuttered now, though he kept his voice light. “I thought you said the man’s a genius.”

 Tony slid his shades on, graced the two of them with a withering look, and left to fulfil his show pony duties. “FRIDAY, please see the geriatrics out.”


	3. Chapter 3

Darcy eyed the package, mistrust written all over her face. It was not that she did not enjoy receiving gifts. On the contrary, she loved gifts as much as the next person.

“But why is Stark giving me gifts?”

Bucky shrugged, expression bland as he held out the present wrapped in the most ostentatious red and gold paper one could find.

“Words, Barnes. Use your words.”

He sighed impatiently, grabbed her uninjured arm and pressed the package onto her palm.

“I am just the messenger. The man performing maintenance on my arm said ‘Pass this to Lewis’, so I said ‘all right’.”

“Yes, because you’re always so compliant,” she huffed, turning the package around in her hands.

“He was concerned when he heard you were mugged.”

She raised both brows at him. “Why?”

“How’m I s’posed to know?” Bucky grumbled, turning to plant his ass on the nearest chair, conveniently stealing a chip off her plate as he did. “Maybe he likes you.”

“Like _likes_ me?”

His lips parted and quirked in a roguish grin at the incredulity in her tone. “You never know.”

“Barnes. Have you _met_ Pepper Potts? Because I have.” Once. And it was beyond impressive how put together that woman was. “And he’s pretty much how old my dad be if he were still alive.”

The other brunette shrugged, looking her dead in the eye as he chewed on another stolen chip. “You do realise you are pretty stunning yourself, right?”

Darcy met his gaze head on, and slowly shook her head. “You need to get your eyesight checked, Barnes.”

Just two months ago he was a silent spectre, barely a word passing through his lips to her. Monosyllabic answers were his M.O. whenever she ran to him around the tower. Darcy had little shame in admitting that the Winter Solider scared her shitless and was to be avoided at all costs.

But then she had kicked him in the nuts.

(In her defence, he had deliberately startled her in the pantry, silently creeping up on her while she was staring mindlessly at the toaster. Sleep deprived and more than a little groggy, she had turned with pop tarts in hand, screamed straight in his face and shoved her kneecap right into his testicles. He went down just long enough for her to escape into the hallway and careen straight into Captain America’s magnificent abs. Abs which had then spent the next fifteen minutes shaking from the force of his chuckles as the ever helpful Captain America laughed in Bucky’s sullen face.)

The rest, as they say, is history.

Personally, Darcy was of the opinion that superheroes are the strangest people to walk the Earth. Not because of their inhuman abilities. But because of their apparent preference for being in the company of people that cause them bodily harm.

The next thing she knew, Bucky was hanging out in Lab Seven on his off days and generally being a pain in her ass. Granted, he sometimes thoughtfully bribed Jane and herself with food, and mostly sat in Darcy’s corner to work quietly on his Starkpad. Steve made the occasional appearance, but was far better at pretending to be normal than his crazed best friend.

His sudden clingy tendencies had earned Darcy many a raised brow from Jane and her actualfax science minions. But Darcy was a pro at mostly rolling with it. Until she was forced to draw a firm line when she discovered he had been shadowing her home for weeks.

 

(“Because, Barnes, that is creepy as _fuck._ ”

“You got mugged at gunpoint, Lewis.”

“No, I _almost_ got mugged at gunpoint. And, you know what, I’m not stupid. If you want to escort me home, you can walk me home. Not follow me halfway down the block like some psycho serial killer.”)

 

Slitting the tape on the package with a fingernail, Darcy carefully peeled the wrapping paper from the box as Bucky went on about something relating to self-confidence and mirrors. She stopped paying attention pretty much as soon as she lifted the gift from its cradle in the box.

“Shut up, Buck.”

“Make me.”

She raised a sly brow at him and brandished her new red and gold taser in the air. “Are you sure you want me to?”

He sighed and held up his arms in a gesture of surrender. “Stark should know better than to arm civilians. Aren’t those things illegal?”

“Yes, yes they are.”

 

* * *

  

FRIDAY refused Darcy entry to his lab since she had no clearance and there was no emergency to attend to. After pacing outside of his glass door for the five minutes it took for it to become apparent that Tony was intent on avoiding her, she made a tactical retreat.

Then ambushed him at four in the morning when he stepped out for sustenance.

“Stark!”

“Why are you still here? You shouldn’t be here. Go home, Lewis. It’s late. Call a cab. You know what, I’ll call you a cab. FRIDAY, call Lewis a cab.”

“This is the pantry. I absolutely have clearance to be here and you absolutely have zero standing to tell me that considering that you have not left your lab in the past 26 hours.”

She planted her feet down in the doorway of the pantry, hands on her hips and chin jutted forward with a stubborn tilt to her head.

“Well, then. Do as you wish, kid.”

“Really?”

“Well, I can’t stop y— No! Lewis!”

Tony held his hands up in the air as she caught him in a hug, arms snaked around his waist and squeezing tight. Getting Tony Stark to babble protests at her was for sure going to be her new favourite hobby. Finally realising she was not about to let go, the scientist sighed and patted her on the shoulder.

“This is highly inappropriate. Do we need to send you for the sexual harassment in the workplace talk? Because I’ve been to one and believe you me it was intense.”

Darcy snorted. Every staff member of Stark Industries had been to The Talk, and every staff member was apprised of the fact that it had been designed specifically to deal with their head of R&D. She peered up past his goatee and smirked. “Is that a gun in your pants, Mr. Stark? Or are you just reaaaally happy to see me?”

The expression that crossed his face could only be called a leer. “Only one way to find out, Miss Lewis.”

An odd choking noise sounded out from behind her, and Darcy turned her face towards the door to watch Steve choke on air. She giggled, and finally let go of Tony as she doubled over laughing.

Those baby blues really could convey a vast depth of disappointment without the utterance of a single word. Not that it stopped Tony from smirking at his teammate and throwing an arm loosely around the lab assistant’s shoulders.

“Hey, Cap. Rather a late hour for you to be turning up here, don’t you think?”

“Tony.” Darcy had to give him credit for recovering his poise so swiftly. “Darcy.”

“Heya, Stevia.” It was like calling him sugar without calling him sugar. Usually, it made him smile. Tonight, however, he merely quirked a brow at her and crossed his arms across his rather impressive chest.  

“Am I interrupting?”

“Yes, actually,” Tony spread his other arm out in welcome. “But feel free to join us.”

“You know what? I think I will.”

It was all the warning they got before both brunettes were swept up by Steve and gathered against his ample bosom. Darcy did not mind it much, or at all, to be honest. But Tony shoved his way out of it in the next moment, leaving Steve with his arm around Darcy’s shaking shoulders.

“All right. That’s enough assault on my person today, kids. Get off my lawn.”

“Sure thing, son.”

Gesturing for Darcy to precede him out of the pantry, Steve nearly walked into her back when she abruptly stopped and whirled around to double back past him.

“I almost forgot. Thank you for the taser.”

“It’s not a taser. Tasers are illegal in New York.”

“But it looks like a taser. Bucky says it _feels_ like a taser.”

“You shot Barnes? FRIDAY, I want the footage of that.”

Darcy batted away the holographic screen the A.I. drew up for her maker and planted herself in front of it for good measure.

“Well? What is it?”

“It’s an ICER.”

“A what?”

“A non-lethal gun. Modified, of course. Proprietary tech.” Darcy blinked at him and the mechanic sighed, part exasperation, part resignation. “You hold a handgun licence, yes? The registration papers were in the box? You’ll need to clock in time on the range for conversion, of course.”

“… Have you been stalking me?”

“No?” Tony Stark had been a man long enough to know when he was before an annoyed woman.

“How’d you know I hold a handgun licence then?”

“It’s in your employee records. You do realise you were also vetted by SHIELD?”

Darcy muttered something unsavoury under her breath about the organisation.

“Look, Lewis. I know that—”

“Oh, shut up, Mr. Stark,” Darcy huffed, retrieving a small Tupperware from her bag and shoving it at him. She ignored his squawk of protest. “Thank you for the gun. I hope you like shortbread.”

She left the pantry in her usual style – swiftly and without looking back – and so she missed the way Steve shot Tony a questioning look and was rebuffed by a careless shrug and smirk.

“Better hurry, _Stevia_. I don’t think the she’ll hold the lift for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, it maybe got a little bit weird. I'm playing hard and fast with the timelines in between chapters, and also with the narrative styles. Don't mind me. 
> 
> Thank you for the kudos and comments! 
> 
> Last chapter for today. Still unbeta-ed.


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